Givry

Givry is a lively and delicate blackletter modelled on a bâtarde flamande that, with its syncopation and fluidity, produces a vibrance uncharacteristic of other blackletters. It is the most expressive and emotional of the blackletter options, and Givry plays to this strength.

The story of my first tattoo goes like this: One night in middle school, my friend Stephanie spent the night at my house. We were camped out in my bedroom and bored. We had watched “Clueless” so many times that we could recite all the best lines. Food had been ordered, delivered and devoured. We prank-­called all the cute boys in our class and even some of the not-so-cute ones. One of us suggested, half-­jokingly, that we give each other matching tattoos, something discreet enough to hide from our parents but accessible enough to show off at school come Monday.

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I was scared, but as the youngest of five girls, I was familiar with the power of rituals — the way a shared secret between women can be its own kind of power. Abstinence was not an option. I watched as Stephanie used a Bic lighter to heat up and — theoretically — sterilize a safety pin before dipping it in ink. I stuck out my chubby ankle and closed my eyes as she began poking the tender meat of my leg in an uneven staccato pattern. When she was done, I leaned over to admire her handiwork: a patchy approximation of a heart, fashioned out of eight or nine dots, seared into my left ankle.

The Backstory

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Givry

A lively and delicate blackletter modelled on a bâtarde flamande

To create Givry, Tom Grace researched the bâtarde flamande, a lively style of writing used predominantly in France and what is present-day Belgium in the 15th century. The style shares an ancestry with other writing styles traditionally grouped as blackletter: fraktur, textura, rotunda, and schwabacher. The bâtarde flamande, however, evolved into an aesthetic far removed from its relatives.

The bâtarde flamande is strikingly distinct in almost every way from its blackletter cousins. While high-contrast in nature, the bâtarde flamande is more delicate and dynamic than the austere and condensed fraktur and textura. Its quick curves also lack the rigidity of the schwabacher and rotunda. Calligraphic flair through swashes is thematic, as are the variations in letterforms.

The flowing rhythm, achieved through a slightly rightward lean, is most noticeable in the hallmark ‘f’ and long ‘s’ and is undergirded by round forms which are fused together for economy of space. The bâtarde flamande is technically a writing hand that, with its syncopation and fluidity, produces a vibrance uncharacteristic of other blackletters. Simply put, the bâtarde flamande is the most expressive and emotional of the blackletter options, and Givry plays to this strength.

While suitable as an elegant and energetic display face, Givry was created to set continuous text. Many refinements and adjustments were necessary to balance both the style’s irregular nature with the consistency that continuous text typography requires. Carefully researched and developed in OpenType format for a wealth of typographic features and support for more than forty languages, Givry is neither derivative nor experimental, but is historically accurate and textually enjoyable.

Givry comes in one weight, speaks multiple languages, and, along with our entire catalogue, has been optimised for today’s varied screen uses.

Features

Styles

Script and Language

Latin script support for 100+ languages.

Recommended Usage

Books, Posters and cultural print matter.

Features

Small caps, swashes, several sets of numbers, ornaments and discretionary ligatures.

About Us

TypeTogether is an indie type foundry committed to excellence in type design with a focus on editorial use. Additionally, TypeTogether creates custom type design for corporate use. We invite you to browse our library of retail fonts or contact us to discuss custom type design projects.